American Literature Association Meeting Holds Panel on Making of Louisa May Alcott Film; Hosts Screening

May 24, 2009: Scholar interviewees John Matteson and Joel Myerson joined Producers Nancy Porter and Harriet Reisen for a panel discussion and clips from the documentary at the Westin Copley Hotel in Boston sponsored by the Louisa May Alcott Society at the American Literature Association’s annual meeting. Professor Daniel Shealy, editor of numerous Alcott volumes and also an interviewee, was in the audience. Professor Mary Sheldon of Virginia Commonwealth University organized, and Sandra H. Petrulionis of Penn State Altoona introduced the panel. A late afternoon screening attended by a standing-room only audience greeted the film with great enthusiasm, and several commented that it was among the best documentary treatments of a literary figure they had yet seen.